Singapore is ranked third, after Australia and Japan, in terms of cloud adoption in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a Singapore Cloud Adoption Study commissioned by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore in April 2012.
Already, 50% of businesses with internet connection have adopted software-as-a-service (SaaS) and by 2015, one-third of all businesses in Singapore will have adopted SaaS, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%.
With Singapore an emerging as a regional data center hub for both public and private cloud solutions, boosted by initiatives such as the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, infrastructure-as-a-service adoption is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 21%, led mainly by medium and large businesses, the IDA study showed.
G-Cloud for easy procurement
The Singapore government itself adopts a multi-prong approach to cloud computing by leveraging on commercially available public clouds as well as implementing a private government cloud or the G-Cloud, scheduled to be ready for deployment by end of this year.
SingTel has won the tender to provide cloud-computing resources to the Whole-of-Government to address the different levels of security and governance requirements for five years with an option to extend for another five years.
"Through G-Cloud, government agencies can procure cloud services easily to deliver government services securely and quickly on demand, scaling up and down rapidly to cater to changing workloads, resulting in increased agility," said Ronnie Tay, CEO of IDA. "It will be a platform for innovation where agencies can leverage on the G-cloud as a test-bed to pilot new and innovative applications for a small group of users without up-front cost and asset ownership."
Bulk tender
Public cloud service providers are qualified for use by ministries and government agencies through cloud services bulk tenders. In December 2011, for instance, six public cloud service providers -- aZaaS (with Microsoft Azure), CrimsonLogic (with ClearManage), NewMedia Express, PTC System (S) Pte Ltd, SingTel and StarHub -- were awarded the bulk tender for a period of two years with the option to extend for another year.